Lawyers are one thing that you could never have enough of when dealing with a legal matter. Unfortunately, Arkansas doesn’t have enough to cover everybody in the State. Arkansas has the fewest attorneys per capita in the country with one attorney per every 406 people. Saying that just lets you know that there aren’t enough attorneys to take care of all the clients that come our way at one time, but we have a method that can help our non-clients until their time comes.

Get Familiar

On our home page (www.ArkansasLegal.org), underneath the tab “Get Help,” click “Services We Provide” and the numerous services that we offer will pop up. Underneath each tab breaks off in more detail about what we offer in each section as well as offers videos, informational flyers, and radio recordings for different civil legal needs in that category.

You can also view several of our different projects such as our Beyond Opioids Program (https://www.arkansaslegal.org/beyond-opioids), our Veterans Legal Assistance Program (https://www.arkansaslegal.org/veterans-legal-assistance), and our Clean Slate Program (https://www.arkansaslegal.org/clean-slate-program-index), which also provide videos and informational tools for non-clients to use.

The top right of our webpage has our helpline number (which is also a button that calls our helpline from your computer) and an online application that you would need to fill out for our free legal services. Once you apply and get approved, you will be assigned to an attorney who will talk with you one-on-one to discuss the case at hand.

 Resources

On our website, you will find numerous resources to help you with different civil legal situations. Our biggest resource is our self-help forms on our statewide website. Simply go to our homepage (www.ArkansasLegal.org), underneath the tab “Get Help,” click “Self-Help Forms.” This will take you to our statewide website (www.ArLawHelp.org) where you can choose from different civil legal issues and find the forms that fit with your issue.

Another resource in our navigation (top) bar is the “News” section which consists of interviews, blogs, and information that could help you with some of the common things that you may worry about or have basic questions about.

We also have a video library for our Live video Q&A sessions. It can be found on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfOkqweZdSWozQMXtr5L__TFf7qZUob5U

Outreach

The Center for Arkansas Legal Services is always out in the community setting up free clinics with fellow community partners around the state to reach Arkansans. We do a few things each month in different areas to meet our clients, such as:

·       Lawyer in the Library

·       Free Civil Legal Help Desk

·       Free Veteran Legal Clinic

·       Project Homeless Connect

·       Criminal Record Sealing

·       Monthly Facebook lives and Radio talks on different civil legal issues

To see where we will be next, visit our Events Calendar at www.ArkansasLegal.org/events

 Center for Arkansas Legal Services

The Center for Arkansas Legal Services is a nonprofit law firm founded in 1965 that provides free civil (non-criminal) legal services to low-income Arkansans. We serve 44 counties in the state of Arkansas from Chicot County to Crawford County and those in-between. We help with Housing, Public Benefits, Family, and Consumer Subject areas.

However, there are a few civil legal services we don’t currently help with:

·       Employment Discrimination – EEOC 800-669-4000

·       Civil Rights – ACLU 501-374-2660

·       Immigrant Defense for non-citizens – AR Immigrant Defense 479-925-9095

·       Community Legal Access – 501-478-9344

The Center for Arkansas Legal Services is here to help our Low-income Arkansans with civil legal issues. Through our resources and outreach, we should be able to meet most needs that come our way. If ever you need to use our services you could call our helpline Monday-Friday, visit us on all major social media platforms @ArkansasLegal, or visit our website.

AUTHOR: MALIK DUHART, COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST FOR THE CENTER FOR ARKANSAS LEGAL SERVICES